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Bleak House

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Seventeen-year-old Catherine Morland excitedly accepts an offer to accompany family friends on a trip to Bath. There, Catherine makes new acquaintances who invite her to Northanger Abbey, and she encounters a world she’d only glimpsed in the pages of her beloved gothic novels. Through Catherine’s eyes, the Abbey is full of mystery, suspense, and adventure; and she is the heroine at the center of it all. As her imagination begins to run wild, she imperils her summer, her new friendships, and her burgeoning relationship with the charming Henry Tilney.

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The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (commonly known as
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At the tender age of 10, Fanny Price is 'adopted' by her rich relations and is removed from the poverty of her home in Portsmouth to the opulence of Mansfield Park. The transplantation is not a happy one. Dependent, helpless, neglected and forgotten, Fanny struggles to come to terms with her new life until, tested almost to the limits of endurance, she assumes her rightful role....

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14

When John Durbeyfield discovers a family connection to the ancient Norman family, the D'Urbervilles, the fate of daughter Tess is transformed. Sent by her ambitious parents to visit her wealthy D'Urberville cousins, Tess attracts the attention of the unscrupulous Alec. Seduced and discarded by him and alone in the world, she finds work as a milkmaid and the love of Angel Clare. Yet his love cannot accept the truth about Tess's past.

Publisher's Summary

Held to be Dickens' finest novel, containing one of the most vast, complex and engaging arrays of minor characters and sub-plots in his entire canon. Memorable characters include the menacing lawyer Tulkinghorn, the friendly, but depressive John Jarndyce, and the childish and disingenuous Harold Skimpole, as well as the likeable but imprudent Richard Carstone. A suspenseful tale about the injustices of the 19th-century English legal system. This novel set the standard for modern day legal thrillers.

Better example of Dickens' art than many others better known...

This is only my third Audible book and while Mr Batchelor has a fine voice his personalizing of the characters was not an addition to the story. Many times it actually detracted fro the story. His voice of Messieurs Smallweed and Vols verged on the annoying and while both characters are annoying I think Mr Dickens words aline served the purpose. I will not avoid books read by Mr Batchelor but I won't be searching them out either. As to the story, there is a reason it is a classic. Dickens weaves a great plot with enough subplots to keep the listeners' interest. The story line is revealed enough at the right time so as to not injury the overall story but also not scarcely so much so as the listeners' intelligence is insulted. That the story was originally produced in serial from it must do as it does. Worthy of a third book and moving on to Evelyn Waugh next.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Overall

4 out of 5 stars

Performance

4 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Russell R. Dickerson

13-10-2015

oops

wonderful story very well read. A bit surprised that the last five minutes were cut off of the recording

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Overall

4 out of 5 stars

Performance

4 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Julian

12-10-2013

For the serious Dickensian

To tackle this novel in any form is no idle pastime, but requires a serious commitment of time and intellect. With its complex interweaved narrative strands (alternating between Esther's first-person narrative and that of a nameless omniscient narrator), its extensive cast of characters, and its frequent digressions, it poses a particular challenge as an audiobook. It is the kind of novel that should have an index, and which in paper form would have had me often searching back through the pages for a reminder about who had said what to whom and when. Since this was not supported in my audio reader, there was no alternative but to soldier on through the thicket. A novel this dense in character and incident would challenge the greatest actor, but with Peter Batchelor on top form my interest never flagged. If I had one quibble it would be with the production itself - the frequent "re-recordings" are spliced in rather too abruptly, distracting from the flow of words. As for the story itself, Dickens' usual slow buildup is taken to extremes here, but the eventual payoff is as moving as he ever achieved elsewhere. The difficulty for the modern reader is to comprehend how a lawsuit can simply continue under its own momentum without any prospect of conclusion for generations despite the best will of its parties to end it. This undermines its effectiveness as the central narrative device that underpins the action of the novel, but as a critique of the legal system of the time, it was epoch-making and quite possibly history-changing. The greatest incidental pleasure is to be had in the minor comic characters such as the paragon of "deportment", Mr Turvidrop, and the evangelist Mr Chadband with his orotund sermonising (ministers of any stripe rarely fare well in Dickens' hands). Serious Dickens fans simply must attempt this, but best you know what to expect beforehand. You will be glad if you can make it to the end.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

Performance

4 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Gina Johnson

24-02-2018

Cuts out?

I highly enjoyed this book but the very end cuts off in what sounds like the middle of a sentence. Everything else about it was highly enjoyable.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Overall

3 out of 5 stars

Performance

3 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Nemo

31-07-2016

Servants who sound like. . . Eric Idle!

Any additional comments?

I agree with the reviewer who said they wouldn't not buy another book narrated by Peter Bachelor, but they wouldn't seek one out either.My issue with his narration is that he races through the text. Dickens is full of subplots that intertwine, and cunning observations slipped in here and there. Bachelor reads so fast I haven't time to fully absorb one and relate it to the overall narrative arc before he's racing onto the next paragraph/scene.My other complaint is that the female servants sound exactly like Eric Idle! I laughed out loud the first time it happened, but after a while it became irritating.Mr. Bachelor, for the love of Dickens, please slow down when you read these complex Victorian epics and whilst I love Eric Idle (my favorite Python!) find another voice for the "common folk."

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Overall

2 out of 5 stars

Performance

3 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Amazon Customer

01-01-2017

issues with recording

the beginning of chapter 13 plays twice and I think the end is cut off

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Nicole

05-12-2018

Delightful! Dickens meets Austen

This was a delightful story! Well read! It feels a bit like dickens, with comical and sad illustrations of the times, and a bit like Austen with plenty of romantic twists and marriage proposals! Highly recommended!

Overall

1 out of 5 stars

Performance

1 out of 5 stars

Story

1 out of 5 stars

Gregory Strader

19-10-2018

Not the complete book

the book stopped short before the end, this audio file is not the complete book

Overall

1 out of 5 stars

Performance

1 out of 5 stars

Story

4 out of 5 stars

Christy Esmahan

07-11-2017

Not a good narrator

I tried listening to this story for at least 6 hours and found it really difficult. The narrator has a bunch of accents and he speaks very quickly and I just couldn't understand him well enough to get into the story. I was very disappointed. I love Dickens and will definitely sit down to read this book when I find the time. :-(

1 of 2 people found this review helpful

Overall

3 out of 5 stars

Performance

2 out of 5 stars

Story

4 out of 5 stars

JHMore

13-10-2017

Perhaps better in print than on audio

Many times I've heard this work described as Dickens' masterpiece, so I'd hoped to find it more engaging than I did. I don't think the expansiveness of the novel alone is the problem, as I've listened to equally complex works and reveled in them. With Bleak House, however, the first half is such slow going that it's hard to find the main stream of the plot for all the interminable eddies, and the number of extraneous characters only serves to muddy the waters. By the mid-point of the recording, I'd come to think of it as &amp;quot;six hundred characters in search of a novel.&amp;quot; But as other reviewers note, inherent difficulty of the novel isn't helped by the narrator, who reads at such a quick pace that many of the lengthier passages -- there are a lot of them of course -- dissolve into a rambling blur. Nor can he do justice to the sheer number of character voices that the narrative imposes on him. I strongly suspect that Bleak House is best served by its original medium.

I can still appreciate why the book enjoys such a strong reputation. I don't know many other works that deal so intensely and dynamically with the intersections of class in Victorian society. It is astonishing in that respect.

Sort by:

Overall

1 out of 5 stars

Performance

1 out of 5 stars

Story

4 out of 5 stars

Daniela Crouch

27-10-2016

terrible performance

really cannot recommend this recording, very poor performance, it's one monotonous drawl, completely emotionless and could have been done better by a computer

3 of 4 people found this review helpful

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

liz Noakes

13-09-2018

Classic

Another great classic book by Charles dickens. Would recommend all of his stories to anyone

Overall

1 out of 5 stars

Performance

1 out of 5 stars

Story

1 out of 5 stars

xxxx

06-01-2017

Dowloaded audio files but none were playable

If this book wasn’t for you, who do you think might enjoy it more?

dowloaded 4 large audio files but none were playable on Audible or Windows Media. Can I have my money back?